The Underwheling News, by the Daily News

Thanks to the Daily News Online, I didn't have to type this out:)
If you are going to forward this, you are supposed to keep the by-line
and paper's name. It is copywritted.
THE DAILY NEWS ENTERTAINMENT FEATURE
Brought to you by The Daily News, Halifax, Nova Scotia
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Wednesday, January 4, 1995
UNDERWHELMED -- UNIMPRESSED BY ROCK 'N' ROLL LIFESTYLE,
SLOAN CONSIDERS DISBANDING
by David Rodenhiser
Halifax grunge-pop sensation Sloan may be calling it quits. "They're
seriously considering it," the band's manager, Chip Sutherland, said
yesterday.
Rumors of the band's pending demise have been circulating fervently
for the past week. They suggest band members feel Geffen Records
hasn't adequately promoted their new album, Twice Removed, in the
United States, and that drummer Andrew Scott's relocation to Toronto
has made it difficult to work as a group.
Sutherland says elements of both rumors are true. But the real reason
the four members of Sloan are contemplating breaking up is that -
after recording two albums and bringing international attention to
Halifax's alternative music scene - they're not certain they want to
continue to live under a big-label record contract.
"The real world of the music business is not a game. It's a lot of
hard work and people telling you what to do all the time. You're
giving your life up totally to the market forces and Grand Poobah of
record companies until you sell gold records," Sutherland says.
"And they're thinking: `Is this really what we want to do with our
lives? Is this what we want to be and do?'
"It seems kind of odd, because it's the dream for most people. But
once you've lived it for a couple of records, sometimes it isn't what
it's cracked up to be. You have to be really, really committed to it."
Under Sloan's contract, Geffen has until March to exercise its option
for two more albums. Sutherland says the label has said it wants the
albums, but the band members are giving themselves until the March
deadline to decide whether they want to continue as a group.
"There'll be a decision in March, for sure," Sutherland says. "If we
want to disband Sloan, then I go to Geffen and say: `The band's going
to split up so there's no point in actually picking up that option.'
Then they won't pick up the option and the contract will lapse."
If Sloan breaks up, technically, Geffen could pick up the option on
any of the band's members - Scott, Patrick Pentland, Jay Ferguson and
Chris Murphy - if they started a new recording project. But Sutherland
says a time limit applies to that option, and it's unlikely Geffen
would exercise it.
"If they don't go forward as a band, it's because they don't want to
exist in the major-label world," Sutherland says. "Why would they make
a record for Geffen? It's not like Izzy Stradlin splitting up with
Guns N' Roses to make a solo album. It's really them saying: `We've
always been sort of independent/alternative/murderecords oriented
people. And it's just what we want to do.' "
In the meantime, Sloan has a tour of Ontario planned for next month,
and is recording a new seven-inch, two-song single for murderecords, a
Halifax-based independent label the band owns.
"We'll do this tour, and then that'll probably be it for touring for
this record," Pentland told The Daily News.
"Then we'll just decide what we want to do .... We may decide not to
keep going. But we haven't made a decision at all.
"It's just sort of up in the air. We just aren't making any quick
decisions about anything."
Sutherland adds that if any one member of Sloan decides to leave, the
band won't continue with a replacement player.
"It's either four of them or none," Sutherland says. "Either they're
Sloan or they're not. If they don't go ahead, then Sloan will have
been a very cool thing that lasted a certain period of time."
If Sloan does disband, it'll perform a farewell concert in Halifax in
March.
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Today's News brought to you by The Daily News, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
(C) 1995
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